The Not So Simple Mama: My Kitchen Christmas Tree

There is nothing I love more than decorating my home for Christmas. I truly am a Christmas freak. Everyone in my family has figured out that my OCD is at it's greatest when it comes time to decorate the house and especially the Christmas Trees. And Yes I said trees! We have 3 up currently. If I didn't think my husband would have me committed I would put up even more. The worst part is everything starts going up the day after Halloween. The hubs though has forbidden me from putting up any outside decorations that early. He said the neighbors don't need to know what a nut job I am. Thanks Honey! My favorite one of all of them, is the one that sits in my kitchen. It's my favorite little corner and I love that it's right next to me as I do all of my baking.

I started doing this tree about 3 years ago. I found a 5.5 ft. tall tree on clearance just before Christmas at Target for $25.00. I couldn't resist and had to have it. I originally wanted a flocked tree but those were quite a bit more and couldn't bring myself to spend the money. Instead I opted for a few cheap cans of the flocking and did it myself. It doesn't have quite the same look but I didn't really care it was close enough and a quarter of the cost. I was just happy that it wasn't a stark green tree anymore. This tree sits by our patio door which I love because as I bake in the kitchen I can stare at it. When I first started this tree I bought a bunch of ornaments from Sur La Table as it was close to Christmas so they were having a really good sale. I then opted to make a few of the ornaments myself.

This one was the easiest one of all to make. I found these faux cupcakes at Hobby Lobby. I believe they were $10.00 and came in a pack of 2. I purchased some very small eye hooks placed them into the top and attached a hanger. They also have some cute faux strawberries that I plan to use to make some faux chocolate covered strawberry ornaments.

I stumbled upon a tutorial for cupcake ornaments. These are just Styrofoam balls covered in modge podge, sprinkled with fake snow and then glued into a foil cupcake liner. Make sure you don't use a paper liner or the glue will seep through and it won't hold up the same as the foil ones. I then snipped off a berry stem from inserted it into the top with some bakers twine. I made large and smaller ones. These are great to give as gifts and are super cute.

This is the most recent addition. We picked him up at Pikes Market in Seattle while we there over Thanksgiving. I make a point to pick up an ornament every where we go. I love this because as we put the trees up every year we can look back on all of the great trips we have taken over the years. I also make a point to pick up an ornament that signifies something new we have done that year. This year I picked up Santa and his elves in a raft for our white water rafting trip we took over the summer.

Here are a few that we picked up last year on a trip to Michigan. We visited this little town that we love called Frankenmuth. It just happens to be the home of Bronners which is the largest Christmas store I have ever seen. The hubs says it's the mother ship to my people. I can't lie I feel like a 5 year old in a candy store when I get in there. My husband is originally from Michigan so I beg like crazy every time we go to visit Bronners. Hopefully we will be making another trip there next summer.